To help solve the farm employment puzzle, GippsDairy's Dairy Workforce Project has created a jobs classifieds web page to help match farmers with suitable employees.

Longwarry's John Versteden has recently employed a part-time worker to help with milking and general farm duties.

He had previously sourced his employees through local networks, but found the free dairy classifieds page to be a far more effective process.

"It's about having a nice simple process that is easy to administer and doesn't cost you anything but your time," he said.

After a previous part-time employee left unexpectedly, Mr Versteden needed a replacement within a short-time.

By asking for a curriculum vitae and references, Mr Versteden was able to sort the wheat from the chaff and quickly found a quality employee in Chris Pallot from Warragul.

"I only gave them a short window of opportunity for them to apply and asked them to forward a CV and three references and the whole process only took about a fortnight in total," Mr Versteden said.

"You can do it all without having to talk to each applicant. If they haven't got a CV or three references you move onto the next one."

In Mr Pallot's case, finding an employee who could work around his sporting and education commitments was all important.

A flexible workplace meant he was able to continue with cricket and football as well as his university course in sports management.

Mr Pallot said the dairy classified page had worked well for him and was an easy way to keep working in the farming industry.

"The farm I used to be at didn't have any work for me at the time, so I gave (the dairy jobs classifieds) a go and thought it was pretty good," he said.

Dairy Workforce co-ordinator Jeanette White said Mr Versteden and Mr Pallot were good examples of how the dairy classifieds can work.

"Because we already have a large pool of farmers looking for employees and people looking for jobs, the chances of finding the right pairing is much better than when word-of-mouth was the best way to fill a vacancy," she said.

"For both employers and employees it is a simple, safe and free process that allows you to check out if a farm or person suits your individual situation."

With the popularity of the dairy classified growing all the time, Ms White believes many farmers will no longer have trouble finding quality employees for their business.

"We know from people who have used it, that the dairy classifieds website can help solve employment issues that have gone on for many years," she said.

"For the industry as a whole, labour is one of the biggest issues it faces, so GippsDairy has used dairy services levy funds to create a system that can have a direct benefit to farmers."